Listening to a Friend
by P.Sherman 42 WallabyWay Sydney
Summary: Your friend invited you to a show. It was for the Wonder Bolts; you think that this is a stupid idea. She convinces you to go, although reluctantly...     It ends up being the best night of your life.
1. Just Another Morning

The morning was bright, you cover your eyes, but to no avail, the light still found a way to reach them. You sit up, your eyes adjusting to the light, you stretch your legs and yawn. Your mane starts to itch on your neck, so you reach back with one of your hooves and scratch it. You look around your room, at the blank walls, the cream coloured walls. You roll out of your bed and onto the floor with an audible thump. Your legs don't want to move, but you force them to let you stand. You had a long night last night with your closest friend, Sunshine. She had you run and fly all across Ponyville on a wild goose chase, for her humour of course. Your wings don't hurt all that much, but your legs do as if they'd just been trampled by a dragon. Sunshine had you look for a book called "Many Bubble Types." She told you to receive this book from Twilight Sparkle, the purple unicorn that lived in the library, what she didn't tell you is that she told Twilight tell you that she loaned it to a somepony, but couldn't remember who. So Twilight made you go to everypony she knew to ask for the book, a book which didn't exist.

You are wrenched from your thoughts as a staccato knocking comes from your door. You crack your neck, making three pops on each side, and start for the door. You head down the hallway it is filled with paintings of many famous ponies, like Hayvid Tennant, Bob Marely, Buck Norris, Whinny Hendrix, so on, so forth. You don't really walk that fast until you hear the same staccato knocking, same four knocks, same tempo, same pitch. You stop and wait for the next series of knocks, it comes sooner than the last, exactly the same. You sigh deeply. Only one conclusion could be made about who this was, Sunshine. You continue to the door, walking a little faster now, you pray that it's not the pony that wore you out so badly last night. When you get to the door you look through the magnified peephole near the top. Your prayer had served no purpose, it is Sunshine. You look to the far right side of the door, to the brass chain lock. You debate whether or not to undo it before opening the door; you don't. You push down on the handle of the door with your hoof and pull it open.

There stands Sunshine, a grey Pegasus with a light yellow mane. Her eyes are amber, actually rather beautiful save one fact: they normally aren't both facing the same way. This fact only seems to bother her when other ponies call her "Derpy" or "Ditzy" or some other stuff like that. But right now your friend doesn't seem annoyed or angry at something, actually she has a large smile on her face. It was much larger than normal actually, you raise an eyebrow to show that you are questioning this. Sunshine actually manages to focus her eyes before she explains to you what's on her mind.

"You know who the Wonderbolts are," She cocks her head to the side, the smile still on her face. "right?"

You nod slowly, your curiosity starting to rise, you close the door and undo the chain lock to open it. You open the door to see her face is closer now, you back up a tad. "Yeah, I know who they are, never really seen one of their shows before..."

"And you remember my friend Soarin that I keep telling you about?"

You lower your eyebrow. "Yes, get on with it."

Your friend's happy expression instantly disappears. "Fine, be that way." Her eye drifts away from focus, "Oh by Celesti-... Never mind, anyway, I found out that he's in the Wonderbolts!" Her smile returns as she says this, you can tell that she can't hold back her excitement. Excitement for what though?

Her excitement rubs off on you and you feel that a smile is creeping on your face. "Yes, and?" This time your question is out eagerness to know, not out of annoyance.

"He invited me to their next show, told me I could bring a friend, he sent me backstage passes and everything!" She squeals with pure excitement, "I haven't seen him in forever, and now I get to see him perform!" She runs up to you and wraps her legs around you in an almost suffocating hug, almost. She squeals once more before letting you go. "So, you want to go?"

By now the smile on your face has vanished, you push her slightly and close the door. You turn around, thinking that she will leave, but you hear her four staccato knocks from before. You sigh and turn around, proceeding to re-open the door. When it is open you tell her that you don't want to go. "C'mon, it'll be fun!" Your friend gives you the most pleading face she can, "Please?"

You close the door, this time forgetting to lock it, but you don't notice. You turn around and walk through the hallway full of paintings. You stop next to the painting of Hayvid Tennant when you hear the door open behind you. You turn around and see Sunshine in the doorway, almost in tears. "This is v-very imp-portant to me..." A tear runs down her grey cheek. Now you've done it, you made Sunshine cry. Your face drops from an irritated expression to a concerned one. "P-please, come with me." From the pose she was holding, her two front legs more to her left and her back to her right, you could tell she wasn't expecting you to say yes. But...

You walk up to her and wrap your legs around her in a hug. "Alright, I'll go with you, please stop crying..." She was silent during the hug and after a few moments you let go of her and back up to see if she stopped crying.

She did, but she looks very confused, the tears had stopped but you could tell that they were there in the first place. Both of her eyes are focused on you, but an eyebrow is raised. "What did you just say?" It is now your turn to raise your eyebrow.

"I'll... Go with you?" The question she asked confuses you, you really don't know what she was asking or how to answer it. "To the Wonderbolts show..." As you say this she gives you another tight hug, not nearly as tight as the other one.

She thanks you multiple times. This hug extends to a full minute, you cough to ask her to stop. She lets go of you, blushing slightly. "Sorry." She looks up at the sky, the sun still low in the sky, but reaching over the mountains. "I have to go, the show is tonight." She looks back at you, her large smile returned now. "I'll meet you here at dusk, 'kay?"

Your response is a simple nod, which she giggles at. "Alright I'll see you at dusk then!" She gives you a small salute and flies off, swerving slightly, a sign that shows that her eye became unfocused again. You chuckle to yourself and close the door. You redo the chain lock and head back to your room. As you walk you listen to the sound of your hooves hitting the floor with each step. You arrive inside the room with the blank walls, in the middle is your bed. You lay down on your bed and pull the covers over you. You still have at least 6 hours until the show, and you are off work today, so you close your eyes and drift off into sleep.

A knock at your door wakes you from your peaceful slumber. You sit up and stretch, your limbs not nearly as sore as they were earlier. You hop off of your bed and start into the hallway. You have a feeling that you know who it is, but you still take your time down the hallway. Whoever is at your door knocks again, two knocks, almost legato. You raise an eyebrow, it's not Sunshine, then who is it? Your speed increases slightly as you walk through the hallway. You reach the door and look through the peephole, it's a pale azure, almost white, Pegasus with a navy blue mane. You unlock and open the door. "Hello, I don't believe I've met you before." Your greeting doesn't go unnoticed.

"I'm Soarin, Sunshine's friend." He dipped his head in greeting. "She told me this is where her closest friend in Ponyville lived, the one she invited to the show, is that right?" You nod in response, also to have him continue. "I'm here to tell you that we will be meeting down near the Everfree forest before the show, 'Shine already knows this. Feel free to come if you want."

You smile slightly, "Sunshine'll be picking me up before then, so I'll be there."

"Alright then, I'll see you there." Soarin grabs the door's handle between two hooves awkwardly, as if he'd been taught to do that, and closes the door as he leaves. You look through the small window next to the door to see the amount of light outside, it was bright, a few small clouds in the sky. It looked like it was noon. You turn around and look at the hallway that holds paintings on it's walls. You wonder if you should go back to sleep or do something else. You stand there for a moment, pondering. You shrug it off and walk through the hallway and into your room. You hop back onto the bed and quickly fall asleep once more.


	2. Before the Show

The sun had passed it's climax in the sky and is now descending very slowly, the sky is reddening as dusk approaches with night on it's tail. It is roughly five at the moment, Sunshine will be at your door at any moment. You are in the shower, trying to wake yourself up completely and get rid of this small amount of weariness left over from your many hours of sleep from today, but still thinking of all of these things. You turn the water flow off and wait for it to stop falling on you, when it does you give yourself a brisk shake and flap your wings a few times until you are almost completely dry. You reach up to your mane with a hoof and squeeze out a good amount of the water remaining. You quickly dry yourself off with the softest towel that you have, enjoying the feel of it.

You hang up the towel to dry and you hear four staccato knocks, you know instantly who it is. You walk through a different hallway, this one not nearly as long, with musical notes painted on the walls, Beethoofen's 9th. You reach the door and undo the chain lock while using your hoof on the handle of the door. The door swings open with Sunshine in the doorway. Your wall-eyed friend has her usual smile graced upon her face, one of her eyes are looking expectantly at you, the other looking at something in the distance. You think to yourself that she looks somewhat cute but think nothing more of it.

She is the first to speak of the two of you, "You ready to go?" is what she begins with. You nod in response, "Alrighty then! Let's go!" You aren't ready, however, for what she does next. She walks around you and grabs your tail in her teeth and starts to drag you.

You look back at her, not shocked, not angry, just slightly annoyed. "'Shine, what are you doing?" You ask her, but all she does is look back at you and giggle. After her giggle she continues to walk, which prompts you to ask again "'Shine, seriously, what are you doing?" this time no response came from the gray mare. You sigh and spread your wings, there is a slight breeze that you feel flowing through your feathers, it feels good. You make a movement that has come more naturally than blinking to you, you churn your wings up through the air, then back down, creating lift for you to take flight. You flap a few more times, not only making lift, but also thrust, moving you in the opposite direction of what Sunshine wants, but you turn yourself around, dragging her now.

You hear a very audible squeak when your friend is lifted into the air, you can feel her flailing below you. She is panicking, forgetting that she has wings altogether. You firmly plant your hoof onto your face at this, making no comment. It takes Sunshine a few moments before she remembers she has wings and you hear the flapping of her wings behind you, you also feel her let go of your tail. Within a few minutes she is next to you and clouts you playfully behind your ear, you chuckle when she does.

"Ha, ha, very funny." Despite her tone her face betrays her, as you can tell that she is very close to laughing herself.

You develop a very large smile and mock her sarcastically. "I love you too 'Shine." You chuckle after you say that.

After a few minutes of flying the two of you arrive at the Everfree Forest, you shudder at the sight of the unnatural place. Trees grew on their own and animals care for themselves without anypony's help, a horrible place it is. You scan the area, looking for blue jumpsuits. It doesn't take you very long to find them, they are at the very edge of the Celestia forsaken place, chatting among themselves. You and Sunshine land not too far off and walk the rest of the way. When you get closer you note that there are three of them there.

As soon as you are almost right next to them the very pale beige one with a yellow mane, which has brighter yellow streaks, greets you happily, "Hi, so you must be... um..." You introduce Sunshine and yourself to her, her blue eyes widen as she hears your friend's name. "So you're Sunshine?" She asks while looking over at her. "Soarin has been saying that you'll be chatting with us!" _She seems to be a very... ecstatic pony._ you think to yourself. You don't notice, but as you were thinking that Soarin walked up to you with the other of the Wonderbolts, a yellow Pegasus with an orange mane with lighter orange highlights and sienna eyes, she dipped her head in greeting, specifically targeted to you. You automatically understood that she already knew 'Shine, you reflect her action to her.

The yellow mare then spoke, "Shooting Star, no need to be so jumpy." she looks at the two of you, "New recruit." You and your wall-eyed friend nod in feigned understanding. "Anyway, I'm Spitfire," she gestures to the new recruit, "this is Shooting Star, and you already know Soarin." You barely notice that the pale azure Pegasus nods when she says this. You are paying attention to Spitfire, you had a brow raised. Before she can start asking questions you take your attention from her and change it to Shooting Star, you jump in surprise because she's watching you.

You shrink away slightly, you ask her if she can stop watching you. She narrows her eyes at you, them only being narrow blue slits, blue slits of suspicion. She walks up to you and whispers in your ear almost silently, not wanting anyone else to hear. "I'll speak to you after the show." There is a seriousness, an almost coldness, in her voice that sends a shiver down your spine. You look over in the direction of Spitfire, Soarin and Sunshine, none of them noticed what just happened. You turn to look at Shooting Star, but she's already walking away, shaking her head, her yellow mane bobbing to and fro. After all of this you are just standing there, obviously confused.


	3. Odd Smoke

At this point of day there was no more sun in the sky, the moon just barely rising. You are following Sunshine to the show that she claimed will "blow your mind". Doubtful, very doubtful. The two of you are standing at the front of a crowd, the Wonderbolts brought you to the show before anypony else just to be in the front. Around you everypony is cheering their lungs out, especially the cyan pony next to you. You look over to see if you recognize them, you do.

The cyan pony is none other than Rainbow Dash, one of the weather ponies for Ponyville, the biggest fan of the Wonderbolts. Of course she's in the front of the crowd. You look back up to the stage, ready for the show to begin.

The stage is dimly lit with lights of gold and red; all around the crowd comes to a staggering hush. You hear Rainbow Dash squeal in joy even before the show starts. You hear a voice come from behind the stage, the announcer.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, are you all ready for the best night of your lives?" As he says this the roar of cheering rises up from the almost silence of before. They were obviously ready. "Great! Because the Wonderbolts have a new recruit full of life and energy, put your hooves together for Shooting Star!" The cheers in the crowd, to your surprise, grow even louder than not even six seconds ago. You look up to see your new friend come before the audience right when she flies out from behind the stage. Her yellow mane resembles what she was named after; a shooting star, she does a few tricks and spins by herself before making her landing. There is a large amount of cheering for the newcomer to the Wonderbolts.

It was now the announcer's time once more. "Now, welcome our veterans; Soarin' and Spitfire!" The lights start to dim down and you look to the stage, expecting a similar performance to Shooting Star's. A crack of thunder from almost directly above you catches your, and almost everyone else's, attention bringing them to silence. There is a gathering of storm clouds above you, seeming to be holding onto the next. Flashes of lightning are making their own show inside of the thunderclouds, seeming to want to upstage the Wonderbolts. But to your surprise you hear a voice from inside one of the clouds.

"Let's go!" Following soon after these words a song that you aren't able to recognize begins to play, a signal for the clouds to change in shape to become a lightning bolt. Out of the cloud two flashes of colour burst, both blue, one holding a streak of darker blue, the other with orange. The two, now recognizable by their colours, twist around each other, leaving behind a helix of smoke and lightning. The lights from the stage shoot up to them, reflecting off their suits and manes more, almost blinding you. You shield your eyes with a hoof and almost in the same second you hear a loud cheer from the crowd, so you look once more. You see Spitfire careening down toward the ground, everyone thinks that she is diving. She isn't.

She is obviously falling, blinded by the light that did the same to you. The rainbow-maned pony next to you noticed this as well, so she tries to fly in to save her, but is held down by everyone else in the crowd. You glance at her and back up to Spitfire, almost panicking until you see how high up she is. You let out a sigh of relief and push your way out through the crowd as fast as you can. When you are outside of the crowd you spread your wings and take off.

You aren't as fast as any of the Wonderbolts or Rainbow Dash, but still, you will make it to Spitfire in time. You flap your wings as hard as you can, churning the air around them to propel yourself through the air. You look directly in front of you to make sure that you don't crash into any obstacles. To your surprise there aren't any obstacles at all, it's a straight shot to the stage; you take this chance to observe your surroundings. Below you the crowd is still watching Spitfire, expecting her to perform some sort of trick. You look ahead of yourself again to see that Spitfire is falling faster than before. You think that you can fly no faster, but still try, beating down the air underneath your wings with full force, it works. To your surprise you fly much faster than you've flown before. Still looking to Spitfire you notice that there isn't much distance between you and her, so you continue your wingbeats at the same strength and speed, unable to flap any harder.

As you get closer you hear the screams of Spitfire and the dissuasive comments of the crowd, _Screams first, jeers later._ you think. You now are but an inch away from her, you reach out for her with your neck. She notices you. The orange-maned pony reaches out and wraps her hooves around your neck, causing you to drop half a foot from the impact, but you recover. You look at her, she is clinging on for dear life and her eyes are still dilated from the light, causing you to feel sorry for her. You look around for a good place to land, which you find not four seconds after beginning your search, for the crowd had opened up for you.

You slow your flight for your descent, holding out your wings in a glide. You take a quick look at Spitfire and ask "Anything hurt aside from the obvious?"

She rolls her eyes, "Yes, my eyes obviously, but also my left wing, I think I sprained it or something." She let go of you and dropped to the ground. "Thanks."

You make your landing soon after Spitfire, feeling the ground make contact with your hooves. You nod to the yellow pegasus and reply, "Not a problem Spitfire." You put on a smile, which quickly fades from your face as you start to feel lightheaded. Your knees wobble a bit, making you feel as if you are standing on top of jelly. You don't notice but your body spasms... Until you feel a sudden jolt of pain tear it's way through your entire being. It's is a burning, excruciating pain, but you only mutter one simple word. "Ouch..." You see the world before you begin to rotate to the right when you realize that you are falling, everything seems to slow down in it's rotation as thousands of incomplete thoughts go through your head. after what seems to be five minutes you hear a thud in one of your ears and everything goes dark.

* * *

><p>You awake in a comfortable bed in a blindingly white room, all the lights are on, causing it to be even more white. You scan the area for any giveaways as to where you are. Your vision is blurred from hopefully the whiteness of the room, but you still manage to see a yellow and orange blur. You blink four times, your vision clearing with each blink. When your sight is as clear as most days you see that the yellow blur is Spitfire; she is looking at you with a very distressed look on her face, but there's more to her expression than just that... Her mane is down, not like during the show when it was standing straight up, her eyes are dull and glassy, showing just how tired she is; she must have been here for at least a day.<p>

Spitfire notices that you are awake and quickly develops an enormous smile; she wraps you in a light hug. "Anything hurt aside from the obvious?" She releases you and lets out a small titter.

"I'm hurt?" You ask immediately after processing her question, you look under the covers of the bed for any kind of bandaging or casting. You are about to look at your left wing when you hear Spitfire burst into a fit of laughing, so you look from under the covers.

You see the yellow pegasus rolling on the ground with her hooves on her ribs. After a moment she stands up and wipes a tear from her eye, done laughing now. "I was kidding! You weren't hurt too badly," she points to a calendar on the wall, "but you have been unconscious for two and a half days."

You examine the calendar only to see that she is right. You look back to her, now only having two questions on your mind, so you ask the first of the two. "Spit, how long have you been here?"

"Two and a half days, why?"

This left one question. "Why did you stay here for two and a half days? We've only known each other for half a-"

"Three."

"Three days!"

"Well," Spitfire begins to explain, "you saved me." She swallows; you can tell that there's more reason, but you don't press her. She might want to explain on her own. She does, so she continues, "Also... I may or may not have been laid off for ditching the show to bring you to the hospital..."

You furrow your brow, somewhat confused. That didn't sound like a good reason to be fired. "Oh, come on now," You began to press, "that can't be why you got fired."

"It is, I left without telling anypony where I was going, and to everypony else you looked perfectly fine. I tried to explain when I went back, but nopony listened." She smiled sheepishly. "So, i got fired." Her gaze gives off a look of pleading, genuine pleading, not like when somepony that lives between two buildings asks for money to go get a drink with, but sincere pleading. "I lived in the hotel rooms rented out for us, so now I have nowhere to live... Can I live wi-"

Before she could finish her question Nurse Redheart enters the room, she is carrying a clipboard in a white saddlebag. [i]Funny, white bag, white room, white pony.[/i] You think almost aloud, but you bite your tongue to assure that the words stay private, to not offend her. The nurse stops in her tracks when she sees that you are awake, she smiles at both you and Spitfire.

"Glad to see that you're awake." She then grabs something off of her back, something that you never noticed, it was a tray of food. "I brought you food for every meal ever since you went unconscious, upon request of Ms. Spitfire here. She was hoping that you'd awaken sooner than you did." You look at Spitfire, to see if this was true; she had a smile on her face and she nodded, so it was. Nurse Redheart continued, "You know, you have a great fillyfriend in her."

Upon hearing this you feel your heart stop, you also see Spitfire's face go red and her eyes become constricted. Your head whips to Ms. Redheart so you can face her and you retort. "She is not my fillyfriend, i am not her coltfriend. What gave you that idea?"

"Ms. Spitfire of course."

You feel your own face become warmer, obviously blushing. In your mind you have a thousand questions, for Nurse Redheart and Spitfire, but you focus on the ones for Nurse Redheart. "Okay, so when do I get out of here?" You are somewhat irritated, which carries to your facial expression and voice.

Nurse Redheart sees and hears this, so she becomes a little embarrassed for going off of the word of one pony. "You won't be getting out for another day, tomorrow at lunch, so get plenty of rest."


End file.
